Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a sudden and momentary electric current that occurs when an excess of electric charge stored on an electrically insulated or non-insulated object flows to an object at a different electrical potential, such as ground. ESD is a serious issue in solid state electronics, particularly when a momentary unwanted current causes damage to electronic equipment.
One type of object on which electric charge can accumulate is a transaction card, such as a credit card, debit card, smart card, contactless card, loyalty card, payment card and the like. Such cards are typically brought into contact with electronic devices, such as point of sale terminals. Accordingly, if an electric charge has built up on a transaction card, electrostatic discharge from the card into the electronic device can damage the device. In some cases, ESD can cause the electronic device to fail to perform a payment transaction.
Such cards can also act as a conduit between objects having different electrical potentials, such as a user's body and a payment card reader device. Transaction cards are typically brought into contact with electronic devices, such as point of sale terminals, and provide a conduit between an electrically charged user's body and a card reader device. As such, if an electric charge has been generated on the user's body and/or other objects, an electrostatic discharge may be generated from the user into the electronic device through the user's skin, the card and the card's conductive elements while the card is in contact with the card reading device. Such electrostatic discharge can damage the device. In some cases, the electrostatic discharge can cause the electronic device to fail to perform a payment transaction either temporarily or permanently.
As such, methods of determining the amount of ESD emitted by a transaction card and methods of determining whether the amount of discharged electrical charge could cause damage to an electronic device would be desirable.